All-Hallows-Eve

I’m not feeling particularly creative this Halloween (not that I’ve ever posted a creative Halloween post before), so I’m phoning this one in.

My All-Hallows-Eve will probably be spent watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on DVD, eating some Reese’s peanut butter cups (the real ones, not those mini things), and hopefully going to bed earlier WITHOUT a screaming infant in the next room.

Party hardy!

HOF Spotlight: Jim Brown

Name: Jim Brown
Position: Fullback
Pro Career: 1957 – 1965
Team Affiliation(s): Cleveland Browns
College: Syracuse
Induction Class: 1971
HOF Profile: Click Here
 
 
 

Brief Bio: If ever there was a single man that defined the versatile back position, that man would be Jim Brown. Brown didn’t just rush, he caught, returned, and passed as well. He didn’t just break records, he destroyed them. Brown was the #1 draft choice for the Browns in 1957 and immediately became a star on his way to earning Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and All-NFL honors. In total, Brown was MVP four times, All-NFL eight times, league rushing leader eight time, and played in the Pro Bowl nine times…not bad for a guy that only played nine years. In 1966, Brown inexplicably retired at the peak of his career and 45 years later, fans still wonder just how much Brown could have achieved. There is a reason the greats like Payton, Sanders, and Smith are compared to Brown. He set the bar for rushing excellence.

Career Stats: 118 games played; 12,312 rushing yards; 5.2 career YPA; 106 rushing TDs; 2,499 receiving yards; 20 receiving TDs; 3 passing TDs; 648 kickoff return yards.

Featured Card: 1958 Topps #62. As one of the greatest and most popular rushers of all time, there is little wonder Jim Brown’s 1958 Topps rookie card still demands collecting attention. There are a slew of copies available on eBay with an equal wide range of prices. There is obviously a grading preference as all of the top price tags are for graded copies. One point to watch with high profile rookie cards such as Jim Brown is reprints and forgeries. Most reprints will state “reprint” or will have a different card back, but some may just have a different copyright date, so be sure you know what you are buying. And always trust your gut. If something feels too good to be true, like a Jim Brown rookie for $25, it probably is.

NOTE: You can find all of my Hall Of Fame Spotlight Features by clicking the HOF Spotlight banner above.

I Got Id

This one is more courtesy of a buddy of mine, but I can’t say I totally disagree.

As many of you will recall, this past summer was one of turmoil for the NFL. Certainly not as bad as that of the NBA, but tumultuous nonetheless. Once the lockout broke and pre-season activities ramped up, news of player trades and signings was constantly streaming. The Eagles particularly seemed interested in building a team in three weeks and assembled what many dubbed a Dream Team of free agents and high profile trades in very little time. It seemed a no brainer that they would dominate the NFC East and run straight to the Super Bowl.

But then they started playing actual games. And sucked. And gave rise to this Pearl Jam/card pairing:

Title: I Got Id
Album: Merkin Ball EP (A-Side)
Correlation: You might need to be a bit of a Pearl Jam aficionado to get this one. “I Got Id” is already a bit of an odd song in that it only appears on this single EP and only features two actual Pearl Jam members (Eddie Vedder on vocals and Jack Irons on drums) as it was recorded with Neil Young during his Mirror Ball sessions (on which all members of Pearl Jam were heavily involved). The other odd part is that this song usually goes by a different title amongst the band and fans: I Got Shit. And THAT is where the correlation lies. The Eagles thought the 2011 season would be wildly successful after assembling what they thought was an all-star squad. But once games actually started, it turns out they just had shit. I suppose you could also argue that the unrequited love theme of the lyrics relates to the fans in that they constantly support and root for a team that just never pulls it all together for a championship season.

As a side session single during the height of Pearl Jam’s attempt to shy from the spotlight, there is no official music video for “I Got Id”. But here is a fan-shot live video from a Philadelphia show. This was actually filmed during the very last event in the famed Philadelphia Spectrum, so maybe a 76ers or Flyers card would have been more appropriate, but work with me here.

Oh, and if you’re an Eagles fan and this post angers you: feel free to submit an official complaint when you’re celebrating your first Super Bowl victory. Whenever that may be…

Copy and Paste

Or: “Why I hope the NFL never awards an exclusive card license”

Over the past few years as the Hobby has been rocked by company after company losing licenses and/or obtaining exclusive card-producing rights, one of the biggest complaints from consumers has been the stalemate fear. If one company gets an exclusive license for a particular sport, there will no longer be outside competition and thus the products (and ultimately the consumer) would suffer in the long run. Eventually the exclusive producer would just stop caring and would turn the card machine on auto-pilot and just crank out set after set with no creativity and perhaps no real differences.

Why wait for an exclusive contract?

In the wake of the license shake ups, only one of the major sports leagues was not under an exclusive contract at some point: the NFL. If you don’t include the few days between when it denied Upper Deck its license renewal and regranted a license to Topps, the NFL has always maintained multiple active card contracts and has secured competition in the collectibles market. Yet despite this competition and what would normally be a drive to innovate beyond the other guy, both Panini and Topps have taken an exclusive mentality into the football card world.

It is widely argued that Panini products feature backwards design issues across nearly all of its products, cards are rarely if ever hard-signed, and card designs are often either uber-neutral or incredibly cluttered. Perhaps being the new kid on the block, or buying out a quickly struggling Donruss Playoff LP company, set Panini up for such public critique. What you don’t find nearly as much is talk of how Topps is just as guilty of phoning it in. I’ll admit that I often gush over Topps’ products while criticizing Panini’s. In my opinion, Topps has simply had better designed cards with more overall value. But Topps is not completely off the hook.

The past three Topps products to be reviewed here at 1&G were Topps Finest, Topps Platinum, and Topps Prime. All three of these sets got above average reviews. Although I did note that Topps Platinum had an awful lot of similarities to Topps Finest, I didn’t specifically mention one item that I’d like to highlight now.

When did Topps’ card designers find the copy and paste feature?

When you take a look at the card fronts, nothing is terribly obvious. Here are three of the base cards taken from the 1&G Reviews:

Click image for full-sized scan

Other than perhaps pointing out that all three have curved lines in their graphic design elements, nothing really jumps out as being the same. Even the Topps logo varies from set to set. Things take a little different turn once we take a look at the card backs:

Click image for full-sized scan

All three sets have the exact same card back elements: full name, position, height, weight, college, drafted, most recent season stats, career stats, copyright info. You could argue that almost all cards have those elements. It’s what we expect to find on the card back. But take a look at the write up. While some cards will have a short bio or humerious anecdote, all three of these sets have a “best moment” type write up with a set-themed title.

Prime Season
Going Platinum
Finest Moment

I wish I had chosen to scan the Sam Bradford card from Topps Finest (all of my extra base cards were shipped out in the group break, well before I busted Platinum and Prime and realized the similarities). I suppose for a long time veteran like Peyton Manning or LaDainian Tomlinson, all three sets could have similar themes but widely different highlights. But when you have a sophomore star like Bradford, how many ways can you point out that he had a spectacular rookie season?

Maybe I am just reading too much into it. Maybe I just expect too much variety in the 20 different sets released by each company each year. Maybe I just haven’t stood on my dusty soapbox enough recently. But all I can really say at this point is that if we are getting such a lack of creativity and originality in a competitive market, I do not want to know what would happen if the NFL ever awards an exclusive card-producing contract.

Product Review: 2011 Topps Prime

Either sets are being released much sooner this year, or I’m doing a significantly better job of keeping up with things. Last year, I didn’t get a chance to review Topps Prime until February 18. I just can’t remember if it was released so much later or if I was WAY behind the ball in getting my review posted. In any case, here is the 1&G Review of 2011 Topps Prime…on October 22.

The Box – Click for Detail

Hobby boxes come with 10 6-card packs for a total of 60 cards. I purchased this box from Dave and Adam’s Card World for $90, which translates into a moderate $1.50/card ratio. That definitely pushes the mid-shelf range, so I would expect design and value some where between Score and Topps Inception.

My scanner was pleased to find that the pillow box packs did not make a return in 2011

The Breakdown:
Base Cards: 29 (0 duplicates)
   Rookies (#/930): 3
Parallels
   Green (all Veterans): 7
   Gold Rookies (#/699): 2
   Blue Rookies (#/599): 2
   Red Rookies (#/499): 1
   Purple Rookies (#/399): 1
   Silver Rainbow Rookies (#/25): 1
Inserts
   Prime Rookies: 3
   Prime Veterans: 2
   Double Combos: 2
   Triple Combos: 2
   Quad Combos: 1
Hits
   Triple Combo Relics (#/388): 1
   Auto Relic Level IV (#/199): 1
   Autographed Rookies Silver (#/50): 1
   Prime Rookie Jumbo Relic Silver (#/25): 1

Click image for full-sized scan

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: In a word: stable. That’s because this base card design is nearly identical to last year’s design. But don’t read that as a complaint, because I love this base design. Like last year, the photography is generally crisp and vibrant (rookie cards notwithstanding) and there are almost no design elements clogging up the card. The rather smooth finish and thicker stock once again reminds me of the defunct but still awesome Stadium Club lines, which was one of Topps’ first attempts at higher end stuff (remember those simpler times?). The rework of the card back wasn’t a complete success in my opinion. It’s got a simplicity that I like, but 2010′s set had a more “simple elegant” feel. Either one is pretty solid, though.

2nd Down, Inserts: In a word: improved. This year’s set features a whole lot more parallels with various color foil stamping. I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s not quite as awesome as the absurdly colorful 1999 Absolute SSD, but is still better than some of the parallel concepts I’ve seen in the past. The biggest improvement is with the Prime inserts. Topps still insisted on the Prime Combo, Triple Combo, and Quad Combo cards, but at least the design is better. There is still a pretty obvious backwards design problem to some of them, though. And I’ll never understand some of the player pairings. Ok, they’re all wide receivers from the ACC and SEC…why do they need to be together on a single card? I will say I liked this year’s single prime rookie and veteran cards much better with their much simpler design. The autograph card was also a big improvement from last year, although that sticker label diminishes what could have been an all-star auto design. So Topps is definitely moving the right direction here, but didn’t quite nail it just yet.

3rd Down, Collation: In a word: redundant. On my end, not Topps’. I’m just going to copy and past my response from last year: I feel like a broken record in this category. Once again, with only 60 cards, it’s awfully hard to accurately gauge the collation of the print run. I guess in reality, this 3rd down has become just a beacon of whether or not there is a glaring problem with the particular box I busted. In this one, I got was I was supposed to. I didn’t get what I wasn’t supposed to get (duplicates). So yay Topps Prime. You pass the test of blatant problems with collation.

4th Down, Overall Value: In a word: decent. The price for a box isn’t off the chart, although the somewhat low card count does hurt it a bit. The cards themselves are beautiful and would augment just about any collection, especially for a player or team collection. I say almost any because they don’t really have a place in a vintage collection. But you knew that. As is the case with most products, trying to flip a box for a profit is a complete gamble and not recommended. But if you want a solid product at a fairly reasonable price, this is a pretty good pickup.

RED ZONE RESULTS: FIELD GOAL Overall I would say this product was better than last year. So why not give it a better red zone result? The improvement wasn’t out of this world. The base cards are still really nice and probably underrated. The inserts are better but could still use some work, especially those multi-player cards. Lastly, the addition of more parallels doesn’t really increase the appeal of a product to me. If anything, they can take away from a product. I wouldn’t say the various colored foil parallels in 2011 Topps Prime were a detriment to the entire product, but I also wouldn’t say they made it rainbow-licously better.

NEXT UP: 2011 Panini Absolute Memorabilia

The Dutch Sternaman Collection

Just got this in from the Pro Football Hall of Fame:

An online exhibit titled, “The Dutch Sternaman Collection” launched today on Profootballhof.com. The online exhibit focuses on the recent donation of a comprehensive collection of original documents from the early years of the NFL and the Chicago Bears.

It represents the most complete collection of its type in the Hall of Fame’s archives including original documents pertaining to one of the NFL’s most important historical events, the signing of Harold “Red” Grange in 1925 and his ensuing cross-country barnstorming tour with the Bears.

I took a look through the online gallery and this is actually really cool stuff. I have gained a greater appreciation for the history of the game through my HOF Spotlight features, and this is right up that alley. There is also a little something to excite the accountant in me, so that is a special bonus.

If you love football and have an interest in the history of the sport, do yourself a favor and visit this online exhibit. You won’t regret it.